But that’s not all: Also now official for release on 4K on 8/13 are the catalog MCU titles Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and Iron Man 3, again as reported here weeks ago. And they’re now available for pre-order on Amazon at the links below (if you would consider pre-ordering them through our links, we’d sure appreciate it)...

And that’s just the first of our big announcements today...

Next up, the crazy kids at the official Monty Python website have finally revealed their plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the series, and among the many pieces of news revealed is this gem (just as we’d hoped):

“Network Distributing will release all 45 episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, on Blu-ray and DVD, fully restored for the first time ever. Each episode has been painstakingly restored using the original video and film elements exclusively for this release. All four series, along with unseen and excised footage, sketches and much more, will be presented in an exclusive 50th anniversary limited-edition box set available exclusively here from 29th July, with all four individual series available to purchase separately at a later date.”

Boy, if they’ve gone back to original film elements too, this could be a terrific restoration! We expect more news and details in the weeks ahead.

Not done yet. We’ve been talking about another forthcoming Blu-ray restoration here at The Bits for months. We finally have official word that HBO will release Tom Hanks’ fully-remastered From the Earth to the Moon miniseries on Blu-ray! Look for the release on 7/15, as expected, with all 12 episodes fully remastered in HD. What’s more, the “standard definition visual effects have been replaced with brand-new [HD] CG effects that are based on reference models from NASA” and the audio has been remixed in Dolby Atmos. The set will also include the Inside the Remastering featurette we mentioned a few weeks ago.

Per our friends at CollectSpace: “On July 15, all 12 digitally-remastered episodes will be available to watch on HBO Go, HBO Now and HBO On Demand. Then, on July 20—the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing—HBO2 will air a marathon of the complete series, starting at 8:45 a.m. (ET/PT).”

How do you like them apples? And every one of those titles we told you about here at The Bits weeks ago. It’s all part of the service. ;)

All right, we have just a couple of additional items for you today, but these are no less important...

Staying with HBO, the company has just announced that they’re releasing Game of Thrones: The Complete Series on Blu-ray and DVD on 12/3. There will be a regular edition and a new Premium Edition. The latter will come packaged in “a stunning wooden shadow box illustrated by Robert Ball” and will include a never-before-seen Game of Thrones: Reunion Special with the cast hosted by Conan O’Brien. All of the previous bonus content will carry over (save, possibly, for retail exclusive content). The SRP for the Premium Edition is $329.99 (Amazon has it for $249). Here’s the packaging:

Meanwhile, the company will also release Game of Thrones: Season 8 on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD as well that same day. Extras will include the Game of Thrones: The Last Watch documentary, When Winter Falls, Duty is the Death of Love, deleted and extended scenes, Histories and Lore, and 10 audio commentaries with the cast and crew. It would appear that HBO will be releasing the complete series in 4K eventually, but likely in individual seasons first (and probably throughout 2020).

First, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has just announced the release of Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien feature film on Blu-ray and DVD on 8/6, with the Digital release due on 7/23. Extras will include a First Look featurette, a gallery, deleted scenes, and audio commentary by the director.

And you may recall the news (from yesterday) of director David Lynch’s disapproving Tweet about Kino Lorber Studio Classics’ new Lost Highway Blu-ray. Well, the company felt the need to respond to the comment and here it is:

“We reached out to Mr. Lynch via email to oversee and color grade a new 4K transfer (from the original camera negative) and get his approval on the dozen or so extras we had planned to include. Once we knew he was not interested in working with us, we had no choice, but to go ahead with the current Universal master and the few extras we had already produced and acquired. To our surprise, the master in question was a very good one, so we were happy to release it with some extras. We found out later that the extras and packaging also had to be approved by him (not the norm) and we sent email after email without one response. We delayed the release by a month, hoping we could at least get him to approve the trailer, the essay and our packaging, at this point we knew the interview and commentary were not possible, but after a few more weeks, we dropped the essay, the trailer and changed our front art to the previously approved DVD art. The BD only includes the film on a dual-layered BD50 disc, maxing out the feature at 30mbps with 5.1 surround and 2.0 lossless audio. We were planning to take the high road and not play the blame game, but after his tweet this weekend, we felt like we had to respond.

We’re still huge David Lynch fans and are proud to release one of his masterpieces on Blu-ray.”

So there you have it. I guess age and genuine greatness earn you the right to be occasionally cantankerous and difficult to work with.

All right, I’d say that’s enough for one day. Here’s a look at the cover artwork for a few of the titles mentioned above, with Amazon.com pre-order links if available (and note that we’ve updated our Release Dates & Artwork section here today too – ordering literally anything from Amazon after clicking through our links helps to support our work here at The Bits and we really do appreciate it!)...

Whew! Stay tuned...

-Bill Hunt

(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)